Today, poultry processing plants commonly enploy machines for picking or plucking feathers from poultry. Such machines, which are exemplified by those illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,044,108, 3,197,809, 3,203,035, 3,234,587, 3,234,588, 3,235,904, 3,747,159, typically employ drums or discs having sets of holes or apertures in which resilient feather plucking fingers of unitary rubber construction are mounted. As shown in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,035 the feather plucking fingers typically comprise a head portion having a peripheral groove seated within an aperture formed in the drum or plate. From the head portion extends an elongation portion which includes a shank and a feather plucking section. The feather plucking section is provided with a furrowed surface which, when moved against feathers, tends to pluck them from the skin of the birds. To achieve this action the birds are directed over the drums which rotate and thereby urge the fingers against the bird feathers.
Poultry feather plucking machines of the type just described employ a relatively large number of feather plucking fingers. Ordinarily, these fingers are mounted directly to the supporting drum or plate by hand. This is accomplished by manually inserting the feather plucking sections of the fingers through the holes until the base portions engage the hole lips. From this point it is necessary to apply substantial force in urging the grooves formed about the peripheries of the finger heads into seating relation within the apertures. This application of substantial force is both fatiguing to the assembler as well as time-consuming and costly.
General objects of the invention are thus to provide improved methods and apparatuses for seating resilient poultry feather plucking fingers within apertures formed in rigid finger supporting structures.